Wear behaviour of Al 2618 alloy reinforced with Si3N4, AlN and ZrB2 in situ composites at elevated temperatures

Al 2618 matrix material was mixed with the Silicon Nitride (Si3N4), Aluminium Nitride (AlN) and Zirconium Boride (ZrB2) reinforced particles. AMC was synthesized successfully by the stir casting method with the various X-wt.% of reinforcements (X = 0, 2, 4, 6, 8). Tribological behaviour was studied in this composite with various temperature conditions. The working conditions were Temperature (°C), Load (N), Velocity (m/s) and Sliding Distances (m). Before wear testing the mechanical behaviour has been analysed. EDAX was confirmed by the matrix material composition. The Al 2618 alloy and the reinforcement mixers were confirmed by the X-ray Diffraction analysis. Wear rate (mm3/m), Wear resistance (m/mm3), Specific Wear rate (m/Nm) and Co-efficient of friction (μ) were analysed with various conditions. The worn surfaces were analysed before and after wear testing by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Influence of process parameters and Percentage of contribution were analysed by Taguchi and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) methods. Genetic Algorithm (GA) was adopted for optimizing the best and mean of the wear rate and to identify the exact influence of input parameters.